Techniques for mobile platform power management using low-power wake-up signals

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9736779-B2
Application number	US-201514752270-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 26, 2015
Priority date	Jun 26, 2015
Publication date	Aug 15, 2017
Grant date	Aug 15, 2017

Abstract

Mobile platform power management is an important problem especially for battery-powered small form factor platforms such as smartphones, tablets, wearable devices, and Internet of Things (IOT) devices. A new low-power wake-up radio (LP-WUR) listens to the wireless medium for a wake-up signal with, for example, below 50 uw power consumption. The LP-WUR allows the mobile platform to completely turn off the main wireless radios, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth® (BT), Low-Energy Bluetooth® (BLE), and the like, and then selectively or opportunistically turn them on only when there is data to transmit or receive based on a wake-up signal.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A wireless communications device comprising:
a platform power management module and a low-power wake-up radio configured to receive a wake-up signal and selectively wake-up one or more of a receiver radio and one or more receiver platform components, wherein information contained in the wake-up signal specifies which of the one or more of the receiver radio and the one or more receiver platform components are to wake-up.

2. The device of claim 1 , further comprising one or more of a transmitter, a receiver, a Wi-Fi PHY module, a Bluetooth PHY module, a Wi-Fi MAC module, a Bluetooth MAC module, one or more antennas, a processor and memory.

3. The device of claim 1 , wherein the wake-up signal indicates that the wireless communications device should: wake-up a main radio only, wake-up a main radio and one or more of the one or more receiver platform components, or wake-up the main radio and one or more of the one or more receiver platform components and increase a CPU frequency.

4. The device of claim 3 , wherein the platform power management module is further configured to set a small LTR (Latency Tolerance Reporting).

5. The device of claim 1 , wherein the platform power management module is further configured to determine an expected platform wake-up time.

6. The device of claim 5 , wherein the device is further configured to communicate the expected platform wake-up time to another device.

7. The device of claim 6 , wherein the expected platform wake-up time is communicated in a wake-up acknowledgement (ACK).

8. The device of claim 1 , wherein the wake-up signal is in a packet with a platform wake-up mode field.

9. The device of claim 1 , configured to receive a packet including one or more of a legacy IEEE 802.11 preamble, a wake-up preamble, a receiver ID, a radio wake-up mode field, a length field, a data field and a Frame Check Sequence (FCS) field.

10. The device of claim 1 , configured to one or more of save power and reduce latency at least based on the received wake-up signal.

11. A wireless communications method comprising:
receiving, at a wireless device, a wake-up signal; and
selectively waking-up one or more of a receiver radio and one or more receiver platform components, wherein information contained in the wake-up signal specifies which of the one or more of the receiver radio and the one or more receiver platform components are to wake-up.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the wireless device comprises one or more of a transmitter, a receiver, a Wi-Fi PHY module, a Bluetooth PHY module, a Wi-Fi MAC module, a Bluetooth MAC module, one or more antennas, a processor and memory.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the wake-up signal indicates that the wireless communications device should: wake-up a main radio only, wake-up a main radio and one or more of the one or more receiver platform components, or wake-up the main radio and one or more of the one or more receiver platform components and increase a CPU frequency.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising setting a small LTR (Latency Tolerance Reporting).

15. The method of claim 11 , further comprising determining an expected platform wake-up time.

16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising communicating the expected platform wake-up time to another device.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the expected platform wake-up time is communicated in a wake-up acknowledgement (ACK).

18. The method of claim 11 , wherein the wake-up signal is in a packet with a platform wake-up mode field.

19. The method of claim 11 , further comprising receiving a packet including one or more of a legacy IEEE 802.11 preamble, a wake-up preamble, a receiver ID, a radio wake-up mode field, a length field, a data field and a Frame Control Sequence (FCS) field.

20. The method of claim 11 , further comprising one or more of saving power and reducing latency at least based on the received wake-up signal.

21. A non-transitory computer-readable information storage media, having stored thereon instructions, that when executed by a processor perform the method of claim 11 .

22. A wireless communications device comprising:
means for receiving, at a wireless device, a wake-up signal; and
means for selectively waking-up one or more of a receiver radio and one or more receiver platform components, wherein information contained in the wake-up signal specifies which of the one or more of the receiver radio and the one or more receiver platform components are to wake-up.

23. The device of claim 22 , wherein the wireless device comprises one or more of a transmitter, a receiver, a Wi-Fi PHY module, a Bluetooth PHY module, a Wi-Fi MAC module, a Bluetooth MAC module, one or more antennas, a processor and memory.

24. The device of claim 22 , wherein the wake-up signal indicates that the wireless communications device should: wake-up a main radio only, wake-up a main radio and one or more of the one or more receiver platform components, or wake-up the main radio and one or more of the one or more receiver platform components and increase a CPU frequency.

25. The device of claim 24 , further comprising setting a small LTR (Latency Tolerance Reporting).

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Min Alexander W
• Park Minyoung

Classifications

• Y02B60/50

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• H04W52/0235 Primary

  where the received signal is a power saving command · CPC title

• H04W88/02

  Terminal devices · CPC title

• Y02D30/70

  in wireless communication networks · CPC title